SEIZURE OF STOLEN RICE, FLOUR

CSD officials, union leaders, traders among 23 sued

A case has been filed with the Tejgaon Industrial Police against 23 people, including six officials of food department’s Central Storage Depot of Tejgaon, for their reported involvement in stealing about 215 tonnes of food items from the warehouse. ‘An official of Rapid Action Battalion lodged the case on Tuesday at about 10:30pm under special power act,’ said Tejgaon Industrial Police Station officer-in-charge Abdur Rashid on Wednesday. RAB teams on Saturday and Sunday seized the rice and flour, meant for open market sales at relatively low price, from Tejgaon and Mohammadpur in Dhaka after the goods were sold to wholesale suppliers and retailers allegedly by some CSD officials, dealers and unscrupulous traders.OC Abdur Rashid said the plaintiff brought the charge of hoarding and dealing the staple in black-market in collusion with each other.Official sources in the police station said four CSD workers, union leaders and 13 traders were also among the accused.The accused officials of Tejgaon CSD include stock in-charge Sukhranjan Halder, gate in-charge Yunus Ali Mandal, check-post in-charge Sumon, demi-official section in-charge Kazi Mahmud, chief security officer Hares and security guard Babul.The labour leaders, who were accused in the case, are Tejgaon CSD Workers’ Union adviser Alamgir Saikat, president Dudu Mia, general secretary Lokman Hossain and senior vice-president Md Alamgir, they said.The traders who were named in the case include CSD contractor and dealer Nazrul Islam and Zakir Hossain and Mohammadpur Krishi Market traders Nazrul Islam, Billal Hossain, Golam Kibria, Iqbal Hossain, Md Salauddin, Miskatur Rahman, Golam Mostafa, Tayebur Rahman, Md Hannan, Md Shah Alam and Kabir Hossain.Executive magistrate Sarwoer Alam, who led the RAB drive, told New Age that that RAB intercepted eight trucks loaded with 115 tonnes of OMS rice and flour as soon as they left the Food Department’s Central Storage Depot at Tejgaon in the capital at 10:00pm on Saturday.After seizing the stolen stocks of rice and flour, the RAB team raided Krishi Market at Mohammadpur and seized another 100 tonnes of rice and flour meant for the OMS from 11 rice shops, said Sarwoer Alam.Sarwoer Alam said the CSD was not authorised to supply rice and flour after 5:00pm.Though it is mandatory for the CSD to keep records of every transport entering and leaving with rice and flour, Sarower said, the RAB team found no record of the seized 115 tonnes of rice and flour.